Environment v Housing Need?

• Environment INCOMPATIBLE with housing for profit

• Meeting housing NEED and protecting environment have the SAME solutions.

Why do we NEED to build new housing?

• New housing is more environmentally sustainable - NOT TRUE

• We have a shortage of housing - NOT TRUE

• More housing reduces prices - NOT TRUE

REAL reasons to build new housing?

• New housing creates economic growth, investment opportunities and profits - TRUE - but who benefits? And at what cost?

• We need private development and private landlords because we can't afford to provide housing with public money - NOT TRUE

Myth 1: New houses are more sustainable

• 'The greenest building is the one that already exists' (Carl Elefante, former president of the American Institute of Architects).

• New building - Lower operational Greenhouse Gas (GHG) - less energy to heat and light - but construction (embodied GHG) is 50% GHG emissions over its life-cycle.

• Construction is 10% of overall UK carbon emissions.

• Future Homes Standard (FHS) in 2025 does not include regulating embodied carbon.

• Can achieve NET ZERO by carbon offset payments.

Other environmental impacts of construction

• Green spaces, plants and wildlife, water contamination, air pollution, resource depletion (sand is running out!), flooding, increased car use, loss of carbon sinks.

• New houses CAN be sustainable but we need much higher building regulations and materials standards to achieve this.

• But we can't build our way to sustainable housing.

• Only 40% rated C or higher - 29 million homes in the UK need to be retrofitted before 2050 to meet the country's net zero target.

Myth 2: We have a shortage of housing

• Over 1 million empty homes.

• 500,000 second homes + unused & holiday lets.

• Increasing number of homes per person:
  1971 - almost one dwelling for every three people.
  2024 - one dwelling for every 2.25 people.

• Increasing number of rooms per person:
  1.8 uk (OECD average 1.6).

Not a housing shortage crisis - a hoarding crisis

Growing inequality in DISTRIBUTION of homes and rooms:

• In 1991 the richest 10% of people had about three times more rooms per person than the poorest 10%. By 2011 - it was five times.

• 2001 - 757,000 more dwellings than households.

• 2019 - 1.2 million more houses in England than there were households.

• 2021 - 1.4 million more dwellings than households in England.

• 2023–2024, 178,560 households were homeless ( 12.3% increase from 2022-23).

Myth 3: More housing reduces prices

Ratio of houses to households has been falling steadily for 50 years.
We ARE building more houses but house prices are still rising:

• 2018 to 2021: Surplus of English homes increased 1.2 to 1.4 million - Average prices rose by 14%.

• 2000 to 2022 - average cost of housing rose by 314%.

Are we just building them in the wrong place?

• London 2012-2022: Twice as many new homes as new households.

• Average property values increased 76% (115% in Barking & Dagenham).

Does Gov actually WANT to reduce prices?

• House prices rise with supply of money and credit, not supply of houses.

• Rising prices makes it MORE desirable, does not reduce demand.
  1 in 21 people are now landlords (more secure than pension?).

• 2014 - 2016: 13% all homes bought in London bought by overseas investors.

• Almost half of all bank assets in the UK are tied up in property.

What's the solution to the housing and climate emergency?

• Take housing out of the market - housing as a right not a commodity.

• Massive public investment to redistribute housing fairly.

• Massive public investment to upgrade existing homes.

• Democratic control of planning to meet housing need and protect environment.

Myth 4: We can't afford green public housing

• Council housing is not subsidised.
  Cheap rent reflects true cost of housing - maintaining and repairing it.

• Private landlords are subsidised - 2021 to 2026 - 70bn pounds in housing support payments to private landlords (v 11.5 billion pounds government's total spend on Affordable Homes Programme)

• Private developers are subsidised. No land value tax, no vat on new builds, grants for cladding remediation, AHP grants to for-profit providers.

.. we can't afford not to

• Public money already has to pay for the effects of the housing crisis:
  In 24/25 in Hastings alone 6.7 million pounds on temporary accommodation (TA) - mostly going to private landlords ('wrong and immoral', said TA worker).

• Damp and cold homes - 1.4 billion cost NHS, 18.4 billion cost wider society (BRE report 2021).

• And the climate crisis:
  e.g. flooding, infrastructure, agriculture, health, insurance, forced migration.